Bloat

On Sunday, October 4, the MJS ran an editorial supporting MKE County Executive Scott Walker and his ideas about forming an office for business development in Milwaukee County. You can read the editorial here.

Now, this editorial was interesting on two fronts, the first being the MJS actually supported Scott Walker on something. But here’s something that was even more interesting.

“At first glance, there is reason to doubt whether Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s proposal for an office of business development makes much sense. After all, there are already several entities in the region working on economic development issues. Done wrong, Walker’s proposal could be duplicative of those efforts and confusing to outsiders.

There’s the Milwaukee 7 economic development consortium that covers all of southeastern Wisconsin, and, in Milwaukee County, the cities of Milwaukee, Wauwatosa and West Allis all have offices or departments dedicated to attracting businesses and growing the economy. The City of Milwaukee has roughly 200 people working on it, and they’re doing a good job in tough times.”[...]

200 people on the payroll at the Milwaukee business development office? Assuming the above isn’t a typo, that’s just moronic. What the hell could 200 people possibly have to do and justify a paycheck? It’s not like they’ve had any big wins in the last, I don’t know how many years.

Let’s assume the average salary is $40,000 with a benefits package of $35,000. That’s $75,000 x 200 or $15,000,000 in salary for what? Has this bloated group pulled in enough new businesses to expand the tax rolls by $15,000,000 per year? And that’s just to break even.

In the private sector, the above office would be staffed by 5, maybe 10 people who would have true accountability AND responsibility. Notice that Walker’s office, which encompasses all of Milwaukee County, has only FOUR people and a budget of $400,000.

I’m not against development offices. In fact, I think they’re necessary. But in order to truly succeed, the office and officers have to have ombudsman powers to pull together the various factions necessary for new business development. The way the City Milwaukee business development office is structured, you need an ombudsman just for that office alone. And we get to pay for it.